Things you would like to do again (even if impossible)

[Waddon]

Hi,
As a spin-off from the 'earliest railway memories' thread, I just wondered what specific railway experiences you would relive if you had the chance? I'm not thinking in terms of riding the full length of the Somerset and Dorset, more the little things, the small pleasures you enjoy which are no longer possible, due to your favourite stock being withdrawn or whatever.

For some reason, when I was a commuter in the 80's and 90's I always used to love to travel in that large luggage compartment on old slam-door Southern multiple units, and also in the corridor bit between the drivers cabs when two units were connected together, watching the controls (and occasionally slipping into the driver's seat when the door wasn't locked). I've tried it on the new units and its just not the same. Also - and I know this is frowned upon - opening the door at Victoria before the train came to a stop and leaping off (I know it's dangerous but everyone used to do it back then)

 

[37401]

go back to the 90`s and film fot and bash everything I saw as a kid

 

[generalvegitable]

I would probably flail from a class 87 LHCS going up along side the M1, I have flailed before, and ridden alnong that line, and been on a train hauled by a class 87, but I have not done them together before

but I would probably walk along the track of a 125 mph railway line

 

[37401]

but I would probably walk along the track of a 125 mph railway line

you can do that now

 

[generalvegitable]

the fences are too high and spikey

 

[Oswyntail]

I would just like to go back to the early 60's but with the same spending power and flexibility I have now (and a modern camera). All those lovely LMR engines pulling proper trains, and always a surprise or two wherever you went. Then tracking down a few of the oddities I never did actually get to see, like the really old 0-6-0s in the 5nnnn series in Scotland. And, perhaps, try to "get" the attraction of the ER and SR locos (no, mustn't go for the impossible)

 

[37401]

the fences are too high and spikey

You are still walking alongside it, without those fences Mr Chav and his 22 kids would be up and down the WCML causing death and delays

 

[GNERman]

spend a day at northallerton station in 1999/2000, with Virgin and GNER Valenta HST's, 56's and 60's still in full prime with EWS, no 185's or Voyagers or any other rubbish.

Also maybe spend a day in York Station in the late 70's, when Deltic's are just passing away, with 37 45 46 47 55 HST to see...

 

[Daimler]

Since this is things I wish I could do again, rather than 'things I would have loved to do', I'll rule out all the wonderful things I'd have loved to do given a time machine, lots of cash, and modern photographic equipment.

I'd love to travel down to Weymouth on a Wessex Electric again, in one of the splendid first class compartments - proper intercity trains on the South Western.

I'd love to go back to my local station and watch a succession of 86s, 87s, and 90s fly by on proper trains, as opposed to the rancid plastic we have nowadays.

I'd love to travel behind the 89 again - something I had always wished to do, and was ecsatic when it turned up a few years back to take us to Leeds.

 

[Dennis]

1st gen DMU trip anywhere on the mainline would do for me. Not had a mainline ride on one for about 18 years!

 

[Techniquest]

Could always go to Cardiff and do the Bay Bubble

Mine would be, although sadly impossible, to bash HSTs on the GW network again with Valentas and Marstons, not forgetting some NA256s. That would be lovely...

Other than that, 37s and 50s on the ATW loco-hauled jobs, they were always fun. And I'd do the Fort Bill beds with a 37 and actually get to a droplight to get some phots and take in the scenery. Everytime I've done Crianlarich to Fort William I've been asleep/too sleepy to enjoy the scenery

 

[Ivo]

I remember going to Hastings for a couple of days with my brother and father in May '97, when I was only 8. My dad worked for LTS at the time, and when we got to Fenchurch Street we actually boarded the Conductor's Compartment, even though he was off-duty because we had bicycles. They let me pull the bell at one point; not that the driver knew... Such memories

I like the idea of doing the Day Bubble. Cardiff Bay is beautiful and going to and fro on the 121... heaven compared to most of the system.

 

[4SRKT]

I'd be back to the mid-80s summer Saturday Aberystwyth double-headed 37s (before 37/4s were converted). Just the best bashing days ever IMHO. A hundred or more bashers all getting off at Caersws at lunchtime as the trains passed at Talerdigg, and the village cafe already having loads of bags of chips pre-prepared for the influx. Unbelievable flailing and bellowing as the trains left Shrewsbury (Health and Safety hadn't been invented then ). Every toilet roll in the first few coaches stuck on the end of walking sticks and reeled off out of the windows before the train had got to Westbury.

Magic times, if a little irresponsible!

Excellent footage taken on the Aberystwyth 37s in the 80s from about 3 minutes into this (very amusing) clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DN1yhNz4Rc

 

[37401]

Every toilet roll in the first few coaches stuck on the end of walking sticks and reeled off out of the windows before the train had got to Westbury.

on the fellsman chopper last year I saw loo roll hanging out of the windows, nothing ever changes just the amount of locos thats all

 

[4SRKT]

on the fellsman chopper last year I saw loo roll hanging out of the windows, nothing ever changes just the amount of locos thats all

The reduction in popularity of bashing as a hobby clearly goes hand in hand with the reduced number of locos. I recall that bashing was something close to a mass movement in the 1980s, with every summer Saturday extra packed with excited blokes and boys going to Skegness, Great Yarmouth, Aberystwyth, Scarborough and many other destinations to sample the 20s, 37s, 40s or whatever. Judging by the [small] number of times that any bashing clip gets viewed on YouTube, and by the fact that it's always the same faces on railtours, I don't think there can be more than a few thousand bashers left, at most.

I wonder when it was that flailing stopped though. This must have been a H&S thing, as it was once seen across the network, and now it's explicitly banned on railtours.

 

[adamp]

Excellent footage taken on the Aberystwyth 37s in the 80s from about 3 minutes into this (very amusing) clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DN1yhNz4Rc

Thanks for sharing hahaha hilarious!

 

[4SRKT]

Thanks for sharing hahaha hilarious!

It's a pleasure! Everyone should see it.

 

[37401]

It's a pleasure! Everyone should see it.

Aye its class, those chaps are still at the game. shame when it was aired it was at about 0400 in the morning on Chunnel 4

 

[4SRKT]

Rishton was on the SRPS class 40 trip to Inverness in September, unless I'm very much mistaken.

 

[yorksrob]

Personally I'd like to get on a train on the Southern and "claim" the single second class compartment (or even the downgraded 1st class compartment where such a thing existed). Happy days.

 

[317666]

I'd go to the 1980s and stay there I would visit every station in the days before rock hard seats, £1000 tickets and doors that didn't have sliding-down windows. Heads-out? Yes please!

 

[Gricer462]

I would love to go back to the late 50's on the Southern in Kent with a video camera. I have so many fond memories of all those old pre-war loco's, L1,D1,E1 or the Maunsell Moguls, Schools, King Arthurs,speeding between Ashford and Tonbridge, together with the more modern Bulleids. Or at the top of Sole Street Bank with the loco's working hard at the end of a long climb.
The few cine films are good to see, but with dubbed sound, but imagine seeing all those on Video with true sounds!

 

[Drsatan]

I'd go back to Eastleigh in the early 1990s and video the last days of BR: NSE liveried 411s, 421s and 423s, 47s, 37s, 73s, 60s, IC swallow liveried HSTs on XC services, etc. etc.

In addition, I'd ride to Weymouth on a 442, which is one of my favourite units. I'd even go back a few more years to 1986 and go from Pompey to Cardiff behind a 33, and Waterloo to Exeter behind a 50.

 

[4SRKT]

I'd go back to Eastleigh in the early 1990s and video the last days of BR: NSE liveried 411s, 421s and 423s, 47s, 37s, 73s, 60s, IC swallow liveried HSTs on XC services, etc. etc.

In addition, I'd ride to Weymouth on a 442, which is one of my favourite units. I'd even go back a few more years to 1986 and go from Pompey to Cardiff behind a 33, and Waterloo to Exeter behind a 50.

Surely you'd rather ride to Weymouth on a 33/1 + TC?

 

[37372]

I'd go back to the early noughties and bash 31s on Bedford-Bletchley and Bristol-Weymouths, have a few trips around Manchester on 101s, have another bash with ATN and their S&C 37s, and video all the stuff I saw!

 

[Vulcan]

Does this thread include travelling through time? As in to times before we were born?

 

[4SRKT]

Does this thread include travelling through time? As in to times before we were born?

Well, the thread title is things you'd like to do again, so unless you were doing things before you were born, I'd say not!

 

[Vulcan]

aww, because I would have liked to have seen things like the bennie railplane, or the listowel and ballybunion, or the various narrow gauge systems and interesting things like that...

But in that case, it'd be nice to have appreciated various trips on loco hauled trains, and when me and dad had a tour of Tinsley works (and cabbed Merdin Emries, may it rust in peace.)

 

[33056]

Just a few things that I would like to be able to do again.

Be spoilt for choice for locos to bash in the UK on a day off.

Ditto for a large variety of things to go out and photograph.

Bash the 'A' class in Ireland.

Spend all day behind class 103s on IC trains in Germany.

Also in Germany, trundle up and down branch lines behind class 202s - often in your own "personal" train (ie, just the train crew and you!). Needless to say, many of these lines are now closed.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

go back to the 90`s and film fot and bash everything I saw as a kid

Same as me I would go back to 1998-or-2002 to ride, photograph, and enjoy the Southern Region 4XX units as they only had a couple of years left than.